All four SteadyStand wheel stands and chocks made by Acebikes
are precision-made, nicely designed and quality products
that we can highly recommend.

Introduction

We reviewed the "original"
Acebikes SteadyStand in
February of 2008 and found it to be a nicely engineered
design that has proven to be very useful in the garage.

There are several motorcycle wheel chocks or front
wheel stands to choose from, but the SteadyStand has a
simple and ingenious no-fuss design that works well.

The original portable SteadyStand has a fixed-width
wheel ramp, or cup and backstop designed to fit
Sportbike-sized tires from 90 to 130 mm wide and wheels
from 15 to 19 inches in diameter.

So how do you make a good product even better?
Introducing the Acebikes SteadyStand "Multi", with an
adjustable wheel ramp and backstop!

The Multi will fit a huge variety of wheel widths and
diameters.

Acebikes says it will fit everything from
big-wheeled scooters to cruisers with wheel diameters
from 15" to 21" and tire widths from 90 mm to 200 mm.

The SteadyStand Multi is available in two versions:
the portable version, similar to the original
SteadyStand we reviewed, comes in Rohm and Haas
RAL 7016 Anthracite powder coating.

The Acebikes SteadyStand Multi Fixed, which can be easily
bolted to a motorcycle trailer or flatbed for a
semi-permanent installation, is galvanized steel.

The Multi is enormously useful, because it can be
very easily adjusted -- with no tools, mind you -- to
fit probably any motorcycle you'll ever own. And
get this: it will fit both front and rear wheels!

Just to put a little icing on the cake, the Acebikes
designers also developed a fixed version of the original
SteadyStand. The SteadyStand Fixed has a narrow
chassis and should fit on "rail" type motorcycle
trailers.

Want more good news? The SteadyStand is made in
the Netherlands and was sold only in Europe, but our
review generated so much interest that Acebikes has now
set up a North American distributor (see the summary
table below).

Now if we can only convince Acebikes
to send over their very cool-looking "Down Loader"
motorcycle trailer with a floor that raises and lowers,
we'll be all set!

The SteadyStand wheel chocks arrive in a fairly
small box, an laying out all the parts for inspection
can make assembly look like a daunting project.

But it's actually pretty easy to combine all those bits
into a functional stand -- just study the CAD drawing
provided in the kit, which lists all the parts and
illustrates how they all go together.

It takes only minimal mechanical skills
to throw one together, and only a few hand tools.
We used drops of blue Loctite here and there just to
make sure the nuts stay with the bolts.

Here are two photos, the first
illustrating the parts provided in the SteadyStand Multi
Fixed kit, which include a bag with the hardware and
four carriage bolts, washers and Nylock nuts to use when
mounting the stand on a motorcycle trailer.

The second photo illustrates all of the
parts that come in the SteadyStand Multi portable stand:

The SteadyStand Multi Fixed, out of the box. It looks complicated, but isn't!

Acebikes SteadyStand Multi, portable version.

Assembly

The only two tips I can offer are to 1) Lay out all the
parts and check them against the parts list on the
drawing, as this will help identify what goes where; 2)
Study the drawing carefully before proceeding to
understand how it all fits together, and take your time.

After the minimal assembly, the stands are ready to go.

The SteadyStand Multi uses an ingenious design for
adjusting the "wings", or sides of the wheel ramp/wheel
cup. A horizontal cross bar fits between the frame
of the stand, and the bar is notched to hold the wings
as they're moved in and out.

A spring fits under the bar and around to the other side
to hold each side of the wheel ramp in place with enough
room to move it for adjustment.

Each side must be
tilted back and then it slides over to fit into one of
the notches cut into the bar. The video we
included below shows how to make these adjustments.

Here's a close-up photo of the SteadyStand Multi Fixed,
illustrating how the horizontal adjustment bar fits to
one of the side rails of the stand frame.

Note the black plastic or nylon insert that fits inside
the cross bar serves as a bushing or bearing for the
cross bar and the wheel ramp to rotate back and forth.
It fits over the short rod shown below.

The spring
is also obvious in this photo:

The next photo shows how the sides of the wheel ramp or
cup can be adjusted, in this case to fit a narrower
tire.

This is the SteadyStand Multi portable unit,
but the principle is exactly the same as on the Multi
Fixed version.

The yellow arrow points to the grooves cut into the
cross bar, which hold the sides in place:

The width of the tire holder is adjusted by moving the
"wings", or side plates, side-to-side by lifting and fitting into the notches cut into the horizontal
cross-bar.

The rear of the SteadyStand Multi Fixed has cutouts on
the lower portion to set the distance of the back of the
wheel stand from about 15" if set all the way towards
the rear (right) to about 21" if set all the way to the
front (left).

The cotter pin on top slips into a shaft that holds the
back plate in place, and it is moved one hole forward or
back to match the position of the bottom lug.

Note how clean the holes and cuts are on the
SteadyStand; it looks like it was cut with either a CNC
water jet, laser or plasma cutter.

Note also that the mounting bolts shown in the photos
are mounted upside-down so we could lay the plywood on
the floor. The holes for the carriage bolts are
square, as you can see in the photo below in the hole to
the right of the bolt.

Precision-cut holes for adjusting and mounting the
SteadyStand Multi Fixed.

Just for the record, next is a photo of the SteadyStand
Multi Fixed on the left, compared to the SteadyStand
Fixed (non-Multi; i.e., not adjustable) on the right.

The SteadyStand Fixed is narrow and compact and should
fit on just about any trailer, including "rail" type
motorcycle trailers.

If you're only going to carry Sportbikes, or motorcycles
with tires from 90 to 130 mm wide and wheels from 15 to
19 inches in diameter, the SteadyStand Fixed
(non-adjustable) should work fine.

It is also
narrower, which may work for certain types of motorcycle
trailers.

For a few dollars (or Euros) more, you can buy the
SteadyStand Multi Fixed, which is adjustable over a wide
range of tire widths and wheel diameters, and which also
works on rear tires, as you can see in the photo below
and in our video.

The "Fixed" versions of the SteadyStand are primarily
designed for mounting on a trailer, but I don't see any
reason why you couldn't also mount one on a piece of
plywood for use in the garage, although this would raise
the height of the wheel holder.

Why Use a Front Wheel Stand?

A webBikeWorld visitor wrote not long ago and asked
"Where and why would you want to use one of these?",
referring to the various front wheel chock and wheel
stand reviews we've published.

My response is this:
The SteadyStand Multi portable is very useful in the
garage for holding the bike upright by the front or rear
tire.

It works especially well for parking the
bike right near the wall of the garage, because the bike
doesn't have to be leaned over on its side stand, taking
up more room than necessary.

If your bike doesn't have a center stand, you'll need
some type of wheel chock or stand anyway.

And even if it
does, the versatility of the SteadyStand Multi, which
holds the bike by either the front or rear wheel, makes
it much easier to perform routine maintenance.

Add in the adjustability of the Multi, and the Fixed
version for mounting on a trailer, and it's an accessory
that quite honestly we can't live without.

[UPDATE: In mounting this on a flatbed
trailer, I noted that the square mounting holes are
apparently metric, and they measure out to a 7/16"
carriage bolt in the U.S. (11 mm).

Unfortunately, 7/16" carriage bolts are as rare as hen's
teeth, I couldn't find them after going to three
different hardware stores. There is a 3/8" and a
1/2" but no 7/16".

They are available because I
found them in an online search, but they're not very
common. So I used 3/8" instead, but the square
part of the carriage bolt has a lot of play in it, I
hope it holds.]

Here's a photo of the Multistrada 620, parked in the
SteadyStand Multi portable, held by its rear wheel.
The rear tire on this bike is 160 mm wide and the wheel
is 17" in diameter.

Next is a photo of the SteadyStand Multi portable.
The rubber grips on what appear to be the handles hold
the stand in place as the bike is rolled on and off and
they also provide a grip for the owner to pick up and
carry the stand.

One wall of this garage is a peg board and we can hang
the SteadyStand on the wall on a couple of hooks for
storage.

As I wrote in the review of the original
SteadyStand, "the beauty of the SteadyStand
is its simplicity combined with its sturdy feel.

It's so easy to wheel the motorcycle on and off the
stand, yet it does a good job of holding the bike for light maintenance and
repairs. It has become one of the most useful
items in the garage and I highly recommend it."

I couldn't say it better this time,
except to add that the Multi version of the SteadyStand
makes it even more useful, especially around here where
a multitude of bikes are coming in and out of the
garage, with a variety of wheel sizes and tire widths.

The adjustability of the wheel holder
and the back stop doesn't seem to have hurt the sturdy
feel of the SteadyStand one bit. When the
SteadyStand is properly adjusted for the tire size, it
holds the bike firmly in place.

We've now tried four different
SteadyStands made by Acebikes, and we're convinced these
are well-made, very well designed and quality products
that we can highly recommend.

From "M.G." (4/10): "I recently purchased the Multi portable
based on your review and would like to say that I was not disappointed. It
works great in both the garage and transporting a bike in the back of my truck.

On a recent trip I found it worked perfect in the back of the truck and also at
the camp ground. The camp ground did not have surfaces suitable for side
stand only parking not to mention the 40 mile an hour wind gust that we had on
the first night.

The wind that night made the campers and utility trailers
rock but the bike stayed steady under the heavy wind.